Thursday, May 26, 2005

I saw the light with my eyes closed...

Yay! I survived my first laser hair removal zapping session! The wonderful and super-nice Janice Gilley in Glens Falls did the work and I can report the pain was mostly mild, with just short blasts of somewhat stinging pain on some of the more sensitive areas (the upper lip and the chin mostly).

The process was pretty cool in general. I started out with a close shave before I left and then dabbled a light sheen of this blue, numbing goo on my face and neck and headed off to the Salon. After giving me a little shave touch up in the hard-to-reach places (right under the nose and under the jawbone on the sides) she gave me a heavy pair of amber-tinted goggles and set to work frying the water at the base of my currently blooming hair follicles (only about 10-20% of hair on the face is actively growing at any one time, hence why multiple sessions are needed).

The zaps themselves felt like a quick shot to the skin with a couple rows of sharp needles. And I could see short bursts of light when she was doing the zaps on my cheeks, which are close to the bone - bone transmitting the laser rather efficiently, I think. It was actually the anticipation of each zap that made me sweat more than the actual pain. I have some kind of quick, anticipatory reaction system perhaps. For example, when I go to the optometrist and they shoot that loud air gun thingy into each eye, it usually takes multiple tries to get a clear shot of my eye - I close it too quickly in anticipation...

The effects of the treatment so far are, of course, basically non-existent. The hair that did get zapped hasn't even really fallen out yet (that takes up to a week). I can't wait to get a couple sessions under my belt so I can really start seeing the longer-lasting effects!

1 comment:

Adelaide said...

You'll have to keep us posted how the laser goes. I'm up to about 6-7 hours of electrolysis now and its going slowly but steadily, but I'm interested in hearing how well the laser compares in permanent treatment.